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Postal Service Tells Gift-Givers Not to Help Santa

For decades of Christmases, it had been a gratifying way to function as a substitute Santa Claus. Every holiday season, thousands of New Yorkers trooped to Manhattan’s main post office and sifted through heaps of dream-encased letters that children had scribbled to the big guy at the North Pole. They picked out the ones that tickled the heart and responded with gifts for otherwise empty stockings.

Then came Thursday.

Gift-giving souls who reported to Operation Santa Claus at the post office on Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street, looking for the familiar cardboard boxes bursting with letters, were instead greeted with no boxes, no letters and no explanation.

The United States Postal Service abruptly shut down public participation in all the Operation Santa programs — in New York and other major cities across the country — at 1 p.m. Wednesday, without offering post offices or letter-seeking citizens any understanding of why.

A Postal Service official in Washington, after an initial, limited acknowledgment of a “privacy breach,” said that at one of the programs, not New York’s, a man whom a letter carrier recognized as a registered sex offender had “adopted” a letter. When postal officials confronted the man, the official said, he said he was sincerely trying to do a good deed, but postal inspectors nonetheless retrieved the letter and notified the family of the child.

“This is a program that we have promoted for 100 years that is very near and dear to the Postal Service,” said Sue Brennan, a spokeswoman for the program. “Everyone wants to believe in Santa. For us to stop this, we feel we are doing the right thing.”

At first, the Postal Service said the program would not resume until next year because the problem could not be fixed quickly. Later on, it said it planned to reopen the Manhattan program on Saturday, with procedural changes. It doesn’t know about other cities.

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A sign cryptically announcing that Operation Santa Claus was closed to the public greeted would-be donors on Thursday.Credit
David Goldman for The New York Times

Under the fixes, the program will acquire an anonymity that might drain it of some of its warmth. Names and addresses will be blacked out and letters will be numbered. Instead of sending gifts directly, gift-givers will need to take wrapped presents to the post office and provide the recipient’s number. The post office will then send them out.

The idea of personally delivering gifts to children in the city’s poorest corners — a step that many program participants most enjoyed — is now completely unthinkable.

The Postal Service said it had not had past problems with Operation Santa. Beginning in 2006, however, it began requiring people looking at letters to sign a form and show identification, after some concerns had been raised about the wisdom of giving out names and addresses of children.

The century-old concept began because the post office was receiving a tide of letters addressed to Santa. Postal workers began voluntarily writing back and eventually began inviting the public to do so, too. Charities and businesses were also drawn in.

New York’s program was the first, beginning in 1912, strictly with postal worker involvement. In the 1940s, the public got to answer letters. Many respondents began sending not only letters but also gifts.

Similar programs exist in post offices in Newark, Washington, Los Angeles and Dallas, among other places. New York’s is by far the biggest one, attracting around 500,000 letters a year. Something like 3,000 people a day show up to participate.

Letters typically contain gift lists, everything from video games to drums to underwear, not to mention grander notions like cars, jobs for parents and more all-encompassing projects like eternal peace.

Citizens infused with holiday joy who appeared Thursday at the 33rd Street James A. Farley Post Office were simply befuddled, not to mention aggrieved. Nobody seemed to know what was going on.

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Dropping off her childrens letters to Santa, Wendy Castillo, 32, of the Bronx, shed tears of joy at the Farley Post Office when Debbie Swamback, 53, of Manhattan, offered to fulfill their requests.Credit
David Goldman for The New York Times

A white board blocked off the passage that led to the short corridor where the bins jammed with Santa letters usually resided. Several small signs on the wall said only: “For the brief remainder of the holiday season, the Santa letters will be handled by our own dedicated employees as has been the tradition in the past.”

Peggy Welch, a Postal Service employee, said she had no idea why the program had stopped. She pointed to the signs.

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"They’re not giving out any more letters,” he said. “They didn’t tell us why."

Whereupon Christian burst into tears. Ms. Lenz tugged him against her and patted his head.

She looked forlorn: "This is the first year he really understands what’s going on."

On Monday, Christian had seen Santa Claus at Macy’s and decided he wanted to help out a needy child through Operation Santa. Ms. Lenz had been participating for years. Last Christmas, she spent $150 on clothing and shoes for a down-and-out family.

They got to the post office too late on Monday, so they returned on Thursday.

They had consulted the Operation Santa Web site and spotted a story about a little girl whose house had burned down. Christian had piled up $75 in savings. He decided he wanted to buy her a new house. In case the $75 didn’t go far enough, his backup plan was to find someone else who might want a remote-controlled car.

Ms. Lenz said, “He was really compelled to do it this year.”

Gus Lenz clucked his tongue and said, "Don’t promise something and then just cancel it."

Christian said, “I really wanted to buy her a house.”

Mick Meenan contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: After Breach, Post Office Says Santa Doesn’t Need Any Help. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe